Dog food suggestions

[balalalala]

Currently feeding our 4.5 year old lab arden grange light. She's been on arden grange a her life and previously done really well on it. Over the past year we have had to add a fibre supplement as she's been needing her anal glands done quite a bit and still drags her bum. The vet has suggested looking at trying a different food - any suggestions? She's not massively overweight but is currently bigger than I would like. I'm not in a position to try raw so will need to be another kibble type food.

[missbattenburg]

//www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk is your friend here but foods I like are:

• aatu
• akela
• canagan
• eden
• millies wolfheart
• wolfworthy

[florentina1]

I get mine from a European Dog food company, called essentials she has the Nautical living one.

[BrokenWing]

Our 5 year old lab is on millies wolfheart. He gets less than 1/2 a feeding cup twice a day.

If her poo is too soft it can affect the anal glands, it sounds like she would benefit from eating less to lose some weight, this will help firm her poo up too.

[balalalala]

Thanks, lots I haven't heard of there to look into!

[balalalala]

@brokenwing she barely eats as it is! We give her so little - approx 2/3 of a cup split across 3 feeds!

[BiteyShark]

If you are trying to get your dog to lose weight you could mix kibble and wet. You get much more bulk in wet food compared to the same calories in kibble. The dog will feel fuller even though you are cutting the actual calories down.

Millie wolfheart which has been mentioned above and scores high on allaboutdogfood.co.uk does lots of different flavours of kibble and wet food.

[Maelstrop]

Add raw chicken wings, she needs the bone content to help push the glands to empty naturally. Some dogs are more prone to issues. Your vet can teach you to express glands carefully.

[chuffnstuff]

Wet food with kibble digests at different rates so shouldn't be mixed.

Apparently kibble expands in the stomach whereas wet doesn't.

[missbattenburg]

I've heard others talk about different digestion rates before and cannot for the life of me figure out WHY that makes a difference?

Surely everything we eat digests at different rates? If a dog ate a prey animal the fur, fat, muscle and bone would all digest at dfferent rates. Dogs are - most likely - the descendents of scavengers. Whatever they scavenged would digest at different rates. Wet food is made up of proteins and carbs, which will digest at different rates.

I can never work out why digestion rate is suddenly so important when mixing wet, dry, raw?

[Maelstrop]

Wet food with kibble digests at different rates so shouldn't be mixed.

The thinking on this has changed so this is no longer relevant. Canine digestion rates are very quick so it doesn’t make a difference.

[BiteyShark]

Has anyone actually performed scientific studies which 'prove' that certain medical issues are associated with mixing different food sources (wet/kibble/raw)? If so can you link to them as I would be interested to read up on it.

[Detoxpup]

Vallhallanotforgotten had several academic links to raw feeding and kibble digestion rates - but I have not seen her around for a bit.

[BiteyShark]

I have seen some articles about different digestive rates but I am more interested in what medical conditions and illnesses it can cause and haven't seen anything that states that.

[Imsosorryalan1]

Millies tracker or highland mixes, both low fat. This is mixed with Wainwrights light wet food. She went up to 40kg following knee surgery but is back to 32kg now, lab

[balalalala]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd not heard of mixing wet and dry before which makes me feel a bit nieve! Will do some reading. She's not massively overweight - currently 29kg and she's better closer to 27kg.

[nevernotstruggling]

We went to aatu when ddog got the constant gland issue. Resolved it pretty well. It's wheat that's the irritant so he can have most grain free food now

[snowone]

I can't recommend raw feeding highly enough - we have seen a huge change in our dogs behaviour as well as his bowels. We are lucky as we have a raw feeding company within 10 mins drive from home

[missbattenburg]

Conversely, I switched from raw to wet and kibble because battendog seemed to prefer it and I am not fussed either way.

Can't saying be seen any real difference in terms of health, coat or behaviour.

Not disagreeing with op. Just giving my another anecdote.